Pokey dokie

I'm not sure where you'd go to find a washboard these days, but I sure am glad Ryan Koenig, the percussionist for Pokey LaFarge found one. Dredged up from Mississippi bottom land of southern Illinois, the St. Louis band manages to transport listeners back through a Victrola horn to a warm crackling time when musicians actually had to know how to play their instruments. This is the flavor of American music revived by the Coen Brothers' Oh! Brother Where Art Thou. I don't know if it's the Great Depression-Great Recession connection or the plethora of Tweedy hipsters that have sprung up in our cities over the last few years that makes Pokey's tunes feel so relevant, but there is something about the that just seems appropriate. I'm just glad to have found them. I'm so happy, in fact, I'm singin' la la la.

Pokey and the boys swing the NPR offices